JP Morgan CEO gets 50 percent pay cut

Jamie Dimon's board cut his pay because of his role in $6.2 billion in losses.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 12:38 PM

Jamie Dimon, CEO at JPMorgan Chase & Co., will have his pay cut in half after the bank's board reviewed his role in $6.2 billion in losses through the company's chief investment office.

Bloombergreported that the 56-year-old executive's total compensation for 2012 will be $11.5 million, compared with $23 million the year before. His salary is $1.5 million, and he will receive $10 million in incentive compensation.

JPMorgan today released three documents in the matter: a report outlining Dimon's compensation, a 129-page review from a management task force that looked into Dimon's role in the losses, and a statement from a review committee of the board of directors.

JPMorgan lost more than $6.2 billion in first nine months of 2012 on derivatives bets by U.K. trader Bruno Iksil, nicknamed the London Whale because his positions were so big. The debacle fueled legal claims against the company and its executives, prompted probes in the U.S. and abroad and this week led to the first regulatory sanctions, as banking watchdogs found internal-control "deficiencies," Bloomberg reported.

Dimon took responsibility for the bank's blunders in June, when he told a U.S. Senate committee he was "dead wrong" in April when he dismissed media reports about trading losses as a "tempest in a teapot."

JPMorgan said its review of Dimon notes that after that Dimon replaced senior managers, tried to lower their pay and formed a team to examine what went wrong.

Dimon, who is also chairman of the board, was not included in board deliberations on his pay, he told reporters.

"The board had to look at the positives, which I think are large, and the negatives," Dimon said. "This is one huge embarrassing mistake and I respect their decision."